FLIGHT

Flight
Bengal
ISBN: 1-58-240381-3
Image Comics
Paperback $19.95
2004/07

Most of the stories in this gorgeous color anthology are about flying, but the title also refers to its contributors starting to take wing. The 21 young American cartoonists in the book―some of them still in college―met through their Internet comics; a few of them have never been published in print before. As Scott McCloud notes in his afterword, though, they're the future of comics. Many of them have assimilated manga and fine-art influences into their work; several use dazzling computer color techniques that have more to do with animation than traditional print comics. The sense of visual imagination at work owes almost nothing to traditional branches of comics art; there aren't many domestic or plebeian scenes. Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away), with his sense of wonder and formidable skill, is a touch point for many, but not in an overbearing way. Most of the contributors are clearly en route to solid comics careers, although a handful are still working out how to make their narratives as confident as their images. Highlights include Clio Chiang's "The Bowl," an ingenious, wordless variation on the classic three-wishes story that draws its visual language from cel animation; Jen Wang's "Paper & String," a lovely short story constructed out of collaged kite paper; Khang Le's "Outside My Window," a bittersweet childhood fantasy rendered in sketchy watercolors; and Derek Kirk Kim's "The Maiden and the River Spirit," a wry commentary on an Aesop fable. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cool... if not entirely accurate...

And can people stop saying "Flight" by Bengal? (Then again, that might sell more books!)

But this is a super write-up, a great way to get the word out to more folks. Thanks for posting, Alfred!

it's true. PW is what the entire publishing industry turns to, and a starred review, no less...nowadays every publisher and their sister imprint is thinking about publish comics, manga, and graphic novels, so the big guys ARE paying attention. awesome job, guys.

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www.goRaina.com

Yeah, the bengal bit is a bit funny, but them's the breaks when you have it alphabetically.


I kinda notice that ALL the online book sellers like amazon and (well in canada) chapters, also have it in the same format. Perhaps for the second volume they should have a single term given to all the contributors. FLIGHT crew sounds good to me. lol

At first Amazon was displaying all our names (which was nice to show off to friends!), and then it was only Vera and Rad or something for a while. I think we should tell them to fix it.. Not just to nurse my own ego, but the book should cross reference with any other works by the authors, like "Same Difference" and a lot of great future stuff, I'm sure.

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@rumrug
neilcomics.com

actually for a while it did cross reference with small Differences as a "if you buy FLIGHT and small differences together, you can get it for $(insert price here)" bit.


But it changes to different books i believe. But yeah, having all the names on there is a good idea. unfortunately, amazon isn't the only one who's made this mistake. there are other book sellers doing this as well. I wonder if it's something that has to be done through Image?

The easiest thing would be to change it to "by Kazu Kibuishi" -- which is how Amazon.com lists most anthologies -- and then make sure the other creators are listed somewhere in the description.

Mike

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The unofficial Broken Frontier representative to the Flight forums.